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Friday, February 3, 2012

Relative warned JBC in 2001: Corona could bring “disrepute” to SC

My exclusive

By Raïssa Robles

When Renato Corona was nominated for a vacant seat in the Supreme Court back in 2001, an uncle of his wife Cristina personally wrote the Judicial Bar Council (JBC) to oppose his nomination in order “to save the SC from discredit and disrepute.”

Jose Maria Basa III warned that Corona “will not be capable of rendering fair and just decisions as he has not exhibited such character” in connection with his actions regarding Basa-Guidote Enterprises, the corporation jointly owned by the Cristina Corona’s parents and the latter’s relatives like Basa.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo came to the defense of Corona, who was then her Malacanang Chief-of-Staff.

Arroyo’s spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao was quoted by the Manila Bulletin as telling reporters in a September 2001 news briefing:

“The President is fully confident on the moral integrity of Corona. He would not be a Cabinet member much less a Cabinet member in Malacanang as Chief of Staff if the President did not have full trust on his integrity,” he said.

Arroyo’s spokesperson brushed aside the complaint of Jose Ma. Basa III, who accused Corona of being morally unqualified to occupy the judiciary position.

“We don’t think a complaint of a single person should overshadow everything Corona has done in his career and on his professionalism,” he said.

The JBC likewise disregarded Basa’s letter and unanimously approved Corona’s nomination in 2002, even placing Corona first on the JBC list of nominees.

Senators Cayetano and PangilinanToday, 11 years later, two members of that same 2001 Judicial Bar Council that vetted Corona are sitting as senator-judges in his impeachment trial. They are Senator Francis Pangilinan and Senator Allan Peter Cayetano (who then represented the House in the JBC.)

I contacted the offices of both senator-judges to get their reaction.

Senator Pangilinan told me:

As a senator-judge I cannot make a comment on this matter.

There was no official reaction from Senator Cayetano’s office.

The JBC then had disregarded Basa’s letter because its members believed what Renato Corona said in his own defense. Corona told Malacañang Palace reporters it was a smear campaign from the camp of the newly-ousted President Joseph Estrada.

Corona also said he had nothing at all to do with his wife’s financial affairs. The Manila Bulletin and Philippine Star both carried his statements.

Philippine Star’s Malacañang Palace reporter Marichu Villanueva quoted Corona as saying he had always distanced himself from any doings of Basa-Guidote Enterprises. Marichu wrote:

From the very beginning, I have purposely stayed away from the financial and material affairs of my in-laws,”Corona said in a prepared statement.

“This private case (involving Basa and his niece Cristina Corona) is a family dispute over inheritance within their family and I do not even know how this came about. For Mr. Basa to accuse me now of meddling in this inheritance case is unfair, baseless and un-Christian,” Corona said.

Perhaps, the giant TV networks or PTV4 may still have a footage of Corona’s press con on file.

Two years after Corona told Marichu and other reporters that “From the very beginning, I have purposely stayed away from the financial and material affairs of my in-laws,” he obtained an P11 million “cash advance” from Basa-Guidote Enterprises.

Corona declared this in his 2003 Statement of Assets, Liabilitieis and Net Worth (SALN) as a sitting Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. He was sworn into office by President Arroyo on April 9, 2002.

The story of the conflict between Corona’s wife and her relatives did not end there, however.

To understand this conflict, which has a direct bearing on CJ Corona’s SALN, let’s go back to June 4, 1995 when this ad appeared in Manila Bulletin in which Jose Maria Basa III announced he had filed an estafa complaint against Cristina Corona.

In reaction, Cristina Corona counter-filed with a criminal libel suit against Basa and her other relatives.

Two years later in 1997, Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 35 found Jose Maria Basa, Randy Raymunda Basa and Virgilio Macaventa “guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the crime of libel.” Each one was sentenced from four months to two years in jail and told to pay jointly P700,000 in moral damages to Cristina Corona.

Jose Maria Basa III elevated the case to the Court of Appeals. In August 2005, Court of Appeals Associate Justice Edgardo P. Cruz affirmed the guilty verdict, but changed the jail sentence to “a fine of P6,000 each and one-half of the costs.”

Ordinarily, such cases could still be elevated to the Supreme Court. But the three who were found guilty never did that and from my inquiries, I learned that Jose Maria Basa III is now dead.

I am posting in full below the August 2005 decision of CA Associate Justice Edgardo P. Cruz on the libel suit because it provides certain clues and leads to why the Securities and Exchange Commission revoked the registration of Basa-Guidote Enterprises in 2003.

No one gave this document to me. I found it on the Internet, thanks to the World Bank-funded judiciary reform program.

If the hard copy of this decision could be retrieved, the attached annexes marked as evidence may shed more light on Basa-Guidote Enterprises.

Following these clues could tell the story as to what really happened to the corporation. And why a revoked company ended up giving Associate Justice Renato Corona P11 million in “cash advance” in 2003, even though he told reporters two years before that he had always kept his distance from his wife’s financial affairs.

As for the letter of the late Jose Maria Basa III to the JBC, this could be retrieved as well from the JBC files. I am also posting it below, together with the news reports then that mentioned the letter. Notice that the letter I have is dated 1997 and not 2001.

My sources told me earlier that Basa first registered his opposition in 1997 when reports surfaced that Renato Corona was being nominated to the Supreme Court.

Records of the JBC can be checked to see whether Renato Corona was first nominated to the Supreme Court during the dying days of the administration of then President Fidel Ramos. His appointment never pushed through, however, because it would have been considered a “midnight appointment” since it fell within the election campaign period.

Last weekend, I posted the love story of Renato and Cristina Corona as seen through their own eyes.

Today I am posting the way their relatives view the couple. Both perspectives are equally valid.

But to the feuding relatives of Cristina Corona, the verdict of the impeachment court will understandably be seen in a very personal light.

Letter of Jose Maria Basa III to the Judicial Bar Council – page one

Corona-Family---Jose-Basa-1

Letter of Jose Maria Basa III to the Judicial Bar Council – page two

Philippine Star report , September 26, 2001

Corona accuses Estrada lawyers of sabotaging SC bid
By Marichu Villanueva (The Philippine Star) Updated September 26, 2001

Presidential chief of staff Renato Corona accused yesterday the lawyers of jailed former President Joseph Estrada of hatching a campaign to keep him off the highest tribunal in the land.

Corona said the Fortun and Narvasa law firm was behind the “political” smear campaign meant to keep him from being appointed to the Supreme Court after Associate Justice Minerva Reyes retired.

“I will not decline my nomination simply by irresponsible accusations, totally untrue and un-Christian,” Corona said, referring to the charges filed by the uncle of his wife Cristina.

In an apparent attempt to block Corona’s nomination before the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) Cristina’s maternal uncle Jose Ma. Basa III charged that Corona and his wife attempted to take over the firm Basa-Guidote Enterprises Inc. by preventing them from holding a stockholders’ meeting.

Basa charged that “with the tacit consent” of Corona, Cristina filed two cases with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to prevent them from holding a stockholders’ meeting.

Because of his meddling in the civil case, Basa said the presidential chief of staff was “not morally qualified” to become a justice of the Supreme Court.

But in meeting with Palace reporters yesterday, Corona said he had “no involvement whatsoever in that case.”

“From the very beginning, I have purposely stayed away from the financial and material affairs of my in-laws,” Corona said in a prepared statement.

“This private case is a family dispute over inheritance within their family and I do not even know how this came about. For Mr. Basa to accuse me now of meddling in this inheritance case is unfair, baseless and un-Christian,” Corona said.

“What is more important, however, is the hidden political angle of this public accusation on a matter that is strictly private and which is already pending in court,” Corona charged.

Corona said Basa is being represented in the SEC case by the Fortun and Narvasa law firm which, Corona charged, also has an interest in the case because Estrada has questioned the constitutionality of the plunder charge against him.

Corona also noted that Basa’s letter to the JBC was “leaked” to the media last Tuesday or on the very day that Reyes officially retired from the high court.

“It also comes suspiciously a day after the attack on me by opposition spokesman Jesus Crispin Remulla last Sunday,” he said, referring to the spokesman for Estrada’s Partido ng Masang Pilipino (PMP).

Meanwhile, President Arroyo reaffirmed her trust and confidence in the “moral integrity” of her chief of staff who was nominated to the vacancy by SC Associate Justice Bernardo Pardo.

Although the President had nothing to do with Corona’s nomination, Presidential Spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao said Mrs. Arroyo remains confident Corona was not involved in the family dispute.

“The President is fully confident on the moral integrity of Secretary Corona. You wouldn’t be a Cabinet member as chief of staff if the President didn’t have full trust on (your) integrity,” Tiglao said.

Although the President is the sole appointing power to vacancies in the Supreme Court, she can only choose from among the names nominated by the JBC.

Manila Bulletin story

Corona has full Arroyo confidence, Sept 26, 2001 - by Genalyn D. Kabiling

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo yesterday expressed full confidence in the credibility and integrity of Presidential Chief of Staff Renato Corona, a nominee for a seat in the Supreme Court.

In a news briefing, presidential spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao defended Corona from criticisms that he is unfit to serve at the High Tribunal.

“The President is fully confident on the moral integrity of Corona. He would not be a Cabinet member much less a Cabinet member in Malacanang as Chief of Staff if the President did not have full trust on his integrity,” he said.

Arroyo’s spokesperson brushed aside the complaint of Jose Ma. Basa III, who accused Corona of being morally unqualified to occupy the judiciary position.

“We don’t think a complaint of a single person should overshadow everything Corona has done in his career and on his professionalism,” he said.

Tiglao said Malacanang has yet to receive the list of nominees to replace retired Justice Minerva Gonzaga Reyes.

In a separate news briefing, Corona defended himself from the “unfair, baseless, and un-Christian” allegations of Basa.

Corona remained undaunted and hit the opposition for the suspiciously timed and politically motivated attacks of Basa.

Corona disclosed that Basa’s lawyer in a certain Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) case between him and Corona’s sister is the Fortun and Narvasa Law office, the firm defending former President Estrada.

“It is not pure coincidence that his letter, which was received by the Judicial Bar Council on Sept. 12, 2001, was leaked to the media only yesterday, Sept. 24, the date of retirement of Justice Minerva Reyes,” he said.

“It also comes suspiciously a day after the attack on me by opposition spokesman Jesus Crispin Remulla,” he added.

Disputing the claims of Basa, Corona said he hardly knows him and had met him only a few times.
On the pending case at the SEC, Corona denied any involvement. He said he purposely stayed away from the financial and material affairs of his in-laws. Basa is a brother of his mother-in-law.
“This private case is a family dispute over inheritance within their family and I do not even know how this came about,” he said.

In a letter to the Judicial Bar Council dated Aug. 21, Basa accused Corona of not being “morally qualified” to serve at the Supreme Court.

Basa said the family-owned corporation, Basa-Guidote Enterprises Inc., could not conduct its stockholders’ meeting due to Corona’s wife, Cristina Roco, alleged illegal doings.

Among the nominees to the SC post are former Justice Secretary Artemio Tuquero, Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice Francis Garchitorena, former Comelec chairman Harriet Demetriou, Sandiganbayan Justice Edilberto Sandoval, lawyer Rogelio Vinluan of the ACCRA law office, and lawyer Antonio Carpio.

COPYRIGHT 2001 Manila Bulletin Publishing Corp.

Philippine Star, April 9, 2002

Corona is top nominee to SC - By Delon Porcalla (The Philippine Star) Updated April 09, 2002

Former presidential chief of staff Renato Corona will most likely be named by President Arroyo the next Supreme Court justice, having obtained a unanimous endorsement from the nine-member Judicial and Bar Council (JBC), it was learned yesterday.

A reliable source said the former Malacañang official did not technically get nine votes, since the JBC considered the votes of two members of Congress — Sen. Francisco Pangilinan and Taguig Rep. Allan Peter Cayetano — as a half vote each.

“It’s eight of eight,” the source said, adding the JBC has finished its short list of 11 nominees for the two SC posts vacated by Justice Bernardo Pardo last Feb. 11 and Justice Arturo Buena last March 25.

Opposition to Corona’s nomination has been filed by Corona’s uncle and a party identified with ousted President Joseph Estrada. Corona and the 10 others were nominees for the place of SC Justice Minerva Gonzaga-Reyes who retired last September.

“Their nominations are valid for six months,” the source pointed out. Corona was personally nominated by Pardo last September, five months before he retired at the age of 70.

In filing his opposition, Jose Ma. Basa, Corona’s uncle-in-law, said his nephew “will not be capable of rendering fair and just decisions as he has not exhibited such character.” Corona’s wife Cristina Roco is the daughter of Basa’s sister Asuncion.

“Being his uncle, I should be happy about his nomination. But having known him personally, I took this opportunity to submit my opposition to his nomination and to save the SC from discredit and disrepute,” he said.

The pro-Estrada Partido ng Masang Pilipino, on the other hand, charged that JBC has been limiting nominees to people from Malacañang or people close to Malacañang, Corona among them.

The SC nominees who obtained the second highest number of votes from the JBC were Court of Appeals Presiding Justice Ma. Alicia Martinez, CA Justices Ruben Reyes and Cancio Garcia and private practitioners Loreto Ata and Ruben Balane.

Getting the third highest number of votes were CA Justice Romeo Callejo Sr.; former Pasig judge, Sandiganbayan justice, presidential legal counsel and Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairwoman Harriet Demetriou; and ACCRA senior partner Rogelio Vinluan.

Demetriou, 55, when she was Pasig City judge convicted to seven life terms Calauan, Laguna Mayor Antonio Sanchez and six of his henchmen for the rape-slay of UP-Los Baños coed Eileen Sarmenta and the murder of her fellow student Allan Gomez in January 1993.

She was promoted by Ramos as Sandiganbayan justice in 1995 until Estrada appointed her as his chief presidential legal adviser in 1998. She was later transferred to Comelec and took over Pardo’s unexpired term until February 2001.

Vinluan, a private practitioner, was the private prosecutor who was instrumental in the conviction of Claudio Teehankee Jr., son of the late Chief Justice Claudio Teehankee Sr., for the murder of teenager Maureen Hultman in Makati City in July 1991.

Nominees who got the fourth highest number of votes were Sandiganbayan Justice Edilberto Sandoval, a member of the three-member special division trying the plunder case of Estrada, and UP Law dean Raul Pangalangan.

Under the law, the President has to appoint a justice’s replacement within 90 days from the day he retires, which means Mrs. Arroyo has to appoint Pardo’s replacement not later than May 11 and Buena’s not later than June 25.

Those who voted for Corona, aside from Pangilinan and Cayetano, were JBC chairman and Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr., Justice Secretary Hernando Perez, court administrator Presbitero Velasco, and ex-SC Justice Regino Hermosisima, former UST Law dean Amado Dimayuga, lawyer Teresita Cruz-Sison and Judge Alfredo Marigonen.

Two “non-voting” JBC members are Senior Justices Josue Bellosillo and Jose Melo.

The family feud
Corona’s uncle Basa personally believes his nephew “is not morally qualified to occupy a very noble position in the judiciary especially in the Supreme Court where the justices are selected for their intellectual prowess, uprightness, fairness and respect of the law.”

In a one-page letter to the JBC, Basa revealed that Corona and his wife took over the family business — the Basa-Guidote Enterprises Inc. (BGEI) — through unlawful means.

“With the intention of gaining control over BGEI, Cristina, with the tacit consent of Corona, filed two cases with the Securities and Exchange Commission purposely to prevent us from holding a stockholders’ meeting,” he said.

Corona managed to get a “questionable” ruling from the corporate watchdog, Basa said, which is why after 10 long years the firm has not held any stockholders’ meeting.

“Cristina is administering the corporation all by herself without rendering any accounting to the stockholders, despite demands,” he said, adding that the couple’s lawyers are Corona’s fraternity brothers at the Villanueva Bernardo Gabionza law office.

“Corona has been actively involved in preventing us from holding a meeting and has in fact attended the hearings on the libel cases that his wife filed against all of us, her uncle, aunts and cousins, including Sister Flor Basa who is turning 80,” said Basa.

“By doing so, he is tolerating and condoning the unfair and unlawful actions of his wife knowing fully well that she has no authority to run the corporation. And so, I strongly oppose his nomination,” Basa told the JBC.

Earlier, Corona had denied the allegations of his wife’s relatives saying he had nothing to do with his wife’s actions.

Among the nominees to the SC, only Corona got a “negative feedback” and from his own uncle yet, while the rest got letters of congratulations from their friends and colleagues in the profession, highly reliable sources said.

Libel conviction of Jose Maria Basa III, et al

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